#player: sleuth

[hardcore-gaming-101]

Doctor Hauzer

If you’ve heard the name Riverhillsoft, it’s most likely in the context of Overblood, one of the most ridiculous and widely mocked horror games of the classical era. That’s understandable, as Overblood is a bonkers experience that sticks in your brain like few things do (PIPOOOOOOOOOOO!!!). That isn’t all they’ve done, though. Before Overblood, there was Doctor Hauzer, a much worse game that’s more forgivable for its sins because it came out in 1994 and tried a lot of things nobody else was doing at the time – arguably for good reason. It is a fascinating piece of history all the same, if just due to what system it released on and for what region. 

Read more...

[p0ssumkingdom]

jezus christ im done

ill get to the godtiers l8r

[holmesoldfellow]

"Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Volume 1" video game released on CDTV, DOS, DVD Player, FM Towns, Macintosh, SEGA CD, TurboGrafx CD, and VIS (1991, ICOM Simulations and Sega) with sequel Volumes 2 and 3

[antirepurp]

nooo not a 2015 ps vita game having cool real-time corruption textures on its characters when sonic frontiers (2022) didn't nooooo

[nekropsii]

I kinda assumed a lot of the hype of hostilestuck was anons adding to a tall tale and people spreading it assuming them to be true; the panels themselves, especially the eridan and kanaya ones that came out recently, make me think the gore isn't actually the point, but rather the emotions and aftermath is.

Deepest apologies, but can someone in the crowd here link me these Eridan and Kanaya panels? I may just be blind, but I can’t seem to find them. It’s so incredibly difficult to clearly and confidently piece all of the lore together through all the fuss and mimicry.

And I don’t know about the whole “the gore isn’t the point” thing, it kind of sold itself on that out the gate. I don’t at all mean to be rude, and if that statement is false then I’ll take the loss on that, but… The Starting Gun for it- and it’s whole premise, from what I can gather- was describing it as a super gory reskin of Homestuck. From my current limited perspective, that’s what the opening premise is. Once again, could be wrong. My word isn’t gospel.

[the-unseelie-court-official]

For those who don’t know, I am the technical admin for a Minecraft server. Now I have slightly above average skills with computers, but nothing to call home about, since computers generally act weird around me. That said I was the best equipped for it so me and @the-seelie-court-official started it up together, me for technical stuff and Dion for community stuff.

Now let me tell you about the Haunting on the Minecraft server.

One of the things I wanted to set up was NPC shop keeps. Now these shop keeps look like players, and I can code them to type in chat and to walk around, but they aren’t players. They aren’t counted in the server list, they only say the words I’ve given them. One of these Npcs was Herb, the Herbalist. They sold plants.

This was their skin, by the way.

Now one day herb stopped talking, this was odd so I tried to select them, like I had done so many times before, but it wouldn’t work. Whenever I tried I was met with error messages. I couldn’t select them, so I couldn’t delete them, I couldn’t move them, they had cut their strings and I the puppet master was forced to place an end portal beneath them and drop them into the void.

I thought this would be the last of it.

Fast forward a couple months and the server is up and running for public use. The players got into the end to find the end dragon missing, and upon building out to make an enderman farm we found herb. They were hovering, in the void. Easily accessible, I still couldn’t select them to change them or edit them so we just let them stay, floating above the yawning void that was meant to get rid of them.

Over time the server got more and more glitchy, chunks were being loaded by the thousand with only one or two people on at a time. After some serious sleuthing we (me and my team) found that the server recognized a ghost player. One that wasn’t listed when you pressed Tab, but was listed on the server side. The console of the server was filled with error messages almost constantly, cascading errors of Null, of Not Found despite the fact herb was right there.

Eventually it came to a head, the corn plants and slimefun crops went Wrong. Corrupted just like herb. And with fields of Steve heads staring back from what should be a farm we agreed that we would completely delete the world. The world that herb was in, that whole dimension. In hopes it would finally get rid of them.

We thought it worked, that we had finally be rid ourselves of this beast of my own creation. An hour later Herb Appeared at the world spawn. As if nothing had happened.

Finally I had to resort to burying them in a bedrock box directly under world spawn, because while I couldn’t move them I could break the blocks under them to make them fall. They sit down there trapped, vomiting error messages any time they are looked at or touched. Waiting for the chance to destroy what we have built.

[70sscifiart]

The Last-Minute Sci-Fi Gift Guide

There's only one thing worse than procrastinating on getting gifts for your loved ones, and that's procrastinating on putting together a guide to help out everyone else with all those gifts. It's Dec 12, so you can decide for yourself which I'm doing.

Art book: Worlds Beyond Time, $32

If you follow this blog, you might have heard of this one. I published Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s this year after five years of work on it, and I think it's really good! 400+ images, 100+ artists, with lots of fun art history and jokes.

Also, it's just $20 right now if you order through my publisher and use the code SKIPTHELINE! Cheapest it's ever been!

Card game: Coup, $14

In this "social deduction" card game, you play as a government official in a future dystopia who needs to backstab their way into power. Everyone starts out with just two cards in this bluffing game, so the tide can turn pretty quick when players start assassinating each other's cards. The fast pace makes it a good gift for someone who loves spies but thinks they don't like card games.

Game to play over Zoom: Bad Spaceships, $3

If a bluffing game stresses you out, try Bad Spaceships: It's a collaborative world-building game in which you roll dice to see what area of your spaceship connects to another, forcing you to spitball exactly why this is the case. As the game puts it, you might fix the hull by playing Tetris, or charge your weapons in the swimming pool. You're basically getting weird prompts to tell a story that can evolve over the course of the game.

It's such an indie game that it comes as PDFs you download from itch.io, but you can play it just as well over Zoom, if you're looking for an excuse to catch up with your old digital nomad college friend.

Movies/TV: Streaming service gift card

Gift cards are all well and good, but you can personalize them by recommending a few of your favorite shows as well. I suggest:

Hulu: Cowboy Bebop

Apple TV+: Severance

Criterion Channel: Ravenous, Paprika, Strange Days

Paramount+: Yellowjackets

Amazon Prime: The Devil's Hour

But to be honest, this entry is just an excuse to talk about the new Max show Scavenger’s Reign. Inspired by the work of French artist Moebius and with a clear debt to famed 70s animated film Fantastic Planet, this stylish sci-fi show features a bunch of humans trying to survive on a beautiful but hostile alien world. Perfect for lovers of fictional nature.

Vintage sci-fi

This Etsy shop has some good stuff, like the 1971 Frank Kelly Freas NASA poster above, a bit of history that I even mentioned on page 167 of my art book.

Penguin science fiction postcards, $28

These postcards have a ton of very cool sci-fi covers I've blogged in the past – great value if you want a lot of art for a low cost.

Meteorite pendant necklace, $34

I think we all know what kind of rock your loved ones need around their neck: A chunk of meteorite straight out of the 1576 Argentinan meteorite fall.

Book recs

For astronauts: Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel by Meredith Bagby

For comedians: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, Even Greater Mistakes: Short Stories by Charlie Jane Anders 

For sleuths: Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty, Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

For crafters: Knits of Tomorrow: Toys and Accessories for your Retro-Future Needs

For the resistance fighters: The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley, An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

For slasher movie fans: Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

Syd Mead "Biomorph Vehicle" button down shirt, $49

T-shirts aren't classy enough for the world's coolest visual futurist, Syd Mead. I haven't actually bought this incredibly odd shirt, but I really need to.

Art prints (and more) from 70s sci-fi artists

Artist shops can be surprisingly hard to track down on the internet, but here's a short list of ones I've come across. All of these artists are featured in my book (except one), so you can read up on them before you commit to a print.

Michael Whelan 

John Harris

Syd Mead

Don Maitz

David B Mattingly

Peter Andrew Jones - Jones was one of just a few artists who declined to be included in my art book, but he has a distinct, colorful style that I would have loved to have featured!

Finally, here's one extra bonus, just for everyone who made it to the end of this article: The UK-based educational charity Centre for Computing History sells three big officially licensed John Harris posters featuring these three artworks, famous for their use as covers for Sinclair programming manuals.

It's a great deal that I've never seen mentioned anywhere, and Harris' work has a timeless quality that makes it great for an unassuming wall decoration. If you're outside the UK, the shipping costs will be a pain, but there's no better deal for a classic sci-fi poster.

[thewertsearch]

GG: what was the thing i told you to tell me to do? GG: right now, i mean CG: OK, DON'T ASK ME WHY, BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW THAT EITHER. CG: BUT THAT BLUE SCREEN THERE CG: FIRST, LIKE I SAID, SHUT IT OFF […] CG: THEN YOU NEED TO DRAW IT.

In the context of the story, the Fourth Wall is essentially a powerful scrying tool. Now, Jade's already got a scrying tool, but maybe she's going to need one with a bit more oomph.

Dave has been tasked with mapping the Furthest Ring, and doing so requires an affinity for both space and time. Maybe Jade needs to scry on the Green Sun in space, allowing her to add its physical location to Dave's map. He's already coming to LOFAF, so why not multitask?

The blue flicker of the coat's lining is arresting. But you don't know it's a coat. That would only invite more questions. You don't know what it shields. Nor do you know whose shoulders it was meant to cover. If you knew that - if you even knew his name - you would understand terror no human ever has.

What name could possibly be this terrifying?

It has to be a name Jade knows, which means it's probably a name we know. English might be an established character, or an established character might transform into English later on.

Who'd be the most 'terrifying' character to be revealed as Lord English? I guess it’d be pretty horrific for Jade to learn that his name is Jade Harley, but it feels pretty far-fetched for her to just up and transform into a gigantic demon. His Time theming would make Aradia and Dave the prime suspects, but I can't think of a pair of Players less likely to become English. I guess we'll deal with this later.

You suddenly wonder where Jadesprite went.

I’m not sure what’s less reassuring – that WV has been ripping chunks out of the session, or that his depiction of LOHAC is falling to pieces.

What do you know that we don’t, Vagabond?

In your attempt to find an exit, you have pried some paneling off the walls. But you are no closer to discovering a means of escape. So you have resolved to build a fort instead.

Looks like we’re taking a trip to Imaginationland!

Your new queen is eager for your counsel. She wishes to know the royal itinerary she inherits. The itinerary, for now, is simple. She must wait for her fourth and final subject to arrive.

A fifth Exile? We can’t be getting a fifth Player at this stage of the game. Everything else aside, we don't have a Kernel Spire to accommodate them.

Besides, who’s even left to be Exiled? I’m losing hope that Team Sleuth are going to show up, and the Midnight Crew have no reason to Exile themselves - they've won.

[theresattrpgforthat]

Woo, the ask box is open again!! Been wanting to ask about any alternatives to Call of Cthulhu (investigative games with the potential to be set in the early 20th century) with more open licensing, such as having Open Game Licenses or being licensed under Creative Commons?

THEME: Hackable CoC Alternatives

Hello friend! I'm excited about the new asks as well!

So as far as I know, a lot of indie designers are very happy to allow hacks and supplements done of their work, but if it isn't clear on their page, asking in a comment certainly doesn't hurt!

That being said, for this ask, I made sure to recommend games that are built on systems that have been stated to be licensed under Creative Commons or something similar.

Eldritch, by Matheus Henrique Morais.

A hack of 24XX for Cosmic Horror games in any setting. Inspired by Cthulhu Dark.

24XX is a game system that has been hacked for a number of different settings and is released under a Creative Commons 4.0 license. The base rules take up about one page, and there’s plenty of examples in other 24XX hacks of how to introduce a rule or two to help the game fit the genre you’re looking for. 24XX is also inspired by the OSR scene, so when it comes to running and designing adventures, you can design adventures for these games similar to how you might design them for other OSR games.

Haunter in the Dark, by Robot Francis.

This town is haunted. Your home is cursed. Monsters are real. Haunter in the Dark is a horror roleplaying game about a group of investigators discovering then confronting the supernatural horrors that haunt their home town. The game is powered by the Forged in the Dark engine, with rules to create your investigators defined by their relationship to the unnatural: the Descendent, the Dreamer, the Exorcist, the Scientist, the Sleuth, and the Sorcerer.

The motivations, powers, and minions of the horror are generated collaboratively by the players during the game, with players encouraged to creep each other out and brandish their character's sharp edges. The MC takes the townspeople, world, and monsters that the players depict, then twists the knife to make it worse than they could have imagined. The game helps you create an escalating mystery, followed by a climactic scene of confrontation.

This is a Forged in the Dark Game, which means it uses the mechanics familiar from the Forged in the Dark SRD. John Harper has stated that the contents of the SRD are available under the Creative Commons Attribution, and if you want to include the Forged in the Dark logo, there’s simply an attribution request to indicate it’s a logo trademarked by One Seven Design. It’s an incredibly free license, and I’m planning on writing a game in this system!

The Between, by the Gauntlet.

The Between is a tabletop roleplaying game about a group of mysterious monster hunters in Victorian-era London. They are residents of a place called Hargrave House, and their job is to investigate and neutralize monstrous threats terrorizing the city—threats that Scotland Yard won’t or can’t handle themselves. As the story progresses, they become aware of the plans of a Moriarty-style criminal mastermind they will eventually have to face in order to save Queen and country.

The Between is directly inspired by the gothic horror TV show Penny Dreadful, but also takes a lot of inspiration from British horror classics, graphic novels like From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and pulp-era stories. Mechanically, it’s Powered by the Apocalypse but also uses the mystery system from Brindlewood Bay.

Both the Powered by the Apocalypse “system” and the Carved from Brindlewood license are pretty open. Vincent & Meguey Baker do not lay claim to the 2d6 mechanics of Apocalypse World, but rather use “Powered by the Apocalypse” to signify that a game was inspired by Apocalypse World in some way. There are thousands of PbtA games out there, many of which alter what some folks may have originally thought were key parts of PbtA. Meanwhile, Gauntlet Publishing runs a Discord channel that welcomes people’s ideas that use the Carved from Brindlewood label, and creates channels for each new game that has a name and a draft ready to go.

R’LYEH, by Another Cosmic Zine.

R’lyeh is a hack of Durf.

It adapts the game’s procedures and themes into a ruleset designed for tabletop scenarios of horror, investigation, mystery and madness. 

Both this game and its predecessor are designed to be hacked and re-worked, and are licensed under Creative Commons 4.0. They are fairly rules light and would probably benefit from having some supplements and home-brew! This game looks to be somewhat indifferent to the time period it’s set in, which tells me that you can probably run it in the early 19th century with little adjustments needed.

Cthork Borg, by kumada1.

Cthork Borg is a full conversion hack that adapts MÖRK BORG to a jazz age cosmic horror setting.

Cthork Borg uses the Mork Borg Third-Party License, which is fairly permissive and allows you to reference the mechanics and rules of the game. The creator for Cthork Borg even offers up the colours used in the game so that creators can create using the same colour palette! You’ll also be able to check out some other material that’s already been made for this game on the link above, including extra classes for characters, a guide to the setting, and rules for adding animals!

[sgiandubh]

It's all fake, anyway

Oh, my. The last two or three video snippets in Marina del Rey. The revolt. The pearl-clutching. The hate.

Again, you know nothing, Jon Snow. It's all about the medium being the message, again: carefully calibrated snippets of information, destined to a captive, deeply divided and (how can I put that without sounding offending, I wonder) unexperimented (yes, that's decent enough) audience.

During the last 24 hours, we've got the Marina del Rey gin promo & MPC teambuilding (hardly an orgy, btw) and C's MUA (or is it hairdresser? irrelevant) hinting on Instagram about a photoshoot at a gin distillery in a #beautifullocation, somewhere on Earth, presumably in Scotland - given her last IG follow. No further details, of course. Very probably a (late-) latergram, too, when she finally got the green light to publish it. Implying nothing, but leaving a boulevard bandwidth for people to infer whatever suits their own narrative. Expect FMN news soon? I highly doubt that and stand corrected: the last photoshoot (with McSideburns, in London) was on May 3rd, when she needed to somehow show the world the Two of Them were continents apart. Identical modus operandi. And always, always via tertiary players.

As for the Marina del Rey teambuilding, if you think that is 'S living his life' you are: a) living in a remote mountain/island area or under a rock; b) an impenitent Mordorian with an agenda to boot or c) incredibly incompetent with the way of the world (or at least, that world). Allow me to translate?

It is alcohol promo, duckies, disguised as teambuilding. The intended message is aimed at a younger, non-OL related audience (as I already warned you) and it roughly goes like this:

'we are a fun loving, no nonsense, start-up business in the spirits industry. Because we don't have a huge advertising budget, we're testing the waters with a cheap, reality-TV snippet to better evaluate the number of social media clicks and new followers and help gauge & calibrate the next step'.

Was it poorly executed? Yeah, you could say that, but then what to do, in a very restrictive, highly regulated tobacco & spirits advertising market, hum? Is it my cup of tea? I don't drink, therefore this type of message touches one ball without really moving the other.

Yes. Start-up business: if we take into account the COVID logistic delay, I believe we're still in that three-years frame. And this detail is essential in order to put context around a very forgettable snippet. Selling a brand-new, more democratic product. Selling it clumsily, in an effort to build relevance, because even bad advertising is, ultimately, good advertising. But make no mistake: it's nothing more than that and it is all they can do, in the current context.

This brings to mind another aspect of the charade, namely the fact that after the Remarkable Week-end (and with the exception of some carefully scripted 'slips'), released and available information progressively became (at least) two-tiered.

First tier: information carefully calibrated for immediate release and general consumption, primarily but not exclusively by the fandom. This includes: spirits shilling, innuendos galore, look-here-not-there latergrams. It also entails less direct interaction with the fans on socials and delegating the media management to secondary players (often called to the rescue, too).

Second tier: public information with a limited availability (you have to take the plunge and pay), for sleuths able and willing to go the extra mile. They paint a very different landscape. And draw two copycat timelines of people who are investing, buying and selling property and overall branching out of their primary source of income with a plan.

I am not a photo sleuth. But with a little bit of time on my hands, I am a decent paperwork analyst. Accounting is not my forte, but legal and business is. I saw what I needed to see and it holds.

So before you start screeching (bad idea, right?), remember this (credit given to @dillon7fan, thanks):

Not really: it is doctored make believe. Bless your heart, honest guy.

Next stop, Tehran. Yes, you read that correctly.

This evening or tomorrow, at the latest. Because context is everything and this fandom severely fails at this.

[hardcore-gaming-101]

Jenny LeClue: Detectivú

It’s hardly the most important feature to draw attention to, but any and all discussions on the relative merits of Jenny LeClue: Detectivú must begin thusly; it is frankly ridiculous how fun it is to say the title of this game out loud. Jenny LeClue: Detectivú. “Detectivú” isn’t even a real word or a translation from another language, it’s just detective with an ‘ooh’ on the end, and a funny accent for no reason. But it doesn’t matter, because not since the release of the lesser-known Shigeru Miyamoto puzzle game Mole Mania for the Game Boy has it been so entertaining to simply say the name of a video game. It would be awkward if after all that, it turned out that Jenny LeClue was actually rubbish, but luckily, it’s just as wonderfully charming as its name.

Read more...

[digi-lov]

Keramon BT5-059 by Kirita from BT-05 Booster Battle of Omni

This card shows Keramon in the Shinjuku Subway Station when Arata teams up with the player in chapter 4 of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth.

[onestepbackwards]

Self aware au, Legends, Sword and shield, Bdsp, ScarVi, Lets go pikachu and eevee.

Arceus decides to actually make a stable connection between all the self aware game Universes, but only the pokemon ones, for now, as he can use Pokemon home as the bridge to make the connection, once he gets a good amount understanding he'll expand for the over games. He also connects to the Players IRL phone thanks to the Mobile app of Home, turning it into a Arcphone, allowing them to enter this Connected Domain and interact with all the characters and pokemon, including all the MCs that they are now adopting as their children.

Arceus is also glad the Player only has games like Monster Hunter(rise and Stories 2), Digimon(Cyber sleuth complete edition, and Survive), Animal crossing(new horizons) and one Dating light novel game(NekoMiko). If he had any big evil monster games like resident evil, he'd probably have a destroy that Universe to keep everything else safe.

Thats such a cute idea, connecting universes through your phone (´ ∀ ` *)

It would be cool, having all your friends connected to you through your phone that you can talk to and show the world!

Maybe even connect it through Pokemon Masters so they all can talk to you face to face? It would be fun!

[deusvervewrites]

AU where the world of MHA is a full dive MMO, with top heroes also being the best players.

My Hero Online is the newest hit Full Dive MMO based around a world of Superheroes and special powers. The game advertises itself on not only Full Dive gameplay but the customizable 'Quirk' system that allows you to create your own unique superpower by combining thousands of preset parts. E-Sports are a big deal, with a national leaderboard.

Midoriya wants the game due to a strong desire for escapism on account of junior-high bullying. Why is he being bullied in a No-Quirks(?) AU, you might ask, if you've never been to middle school. When he finally gets it, he's approached in-game during the tutorial by another player, inviting Midoriya to a 'secret area.' Midoriya, not really being a gamer before this, doesn't know enough to spot the red flags.

The 'secret area' is out of bounds and not meant for players to be there, but the other player is a hacker. They genuinely meant to hang out and goof around with exploits and cheats, but, uh. There seems to be two digimon-adjacent asks at the top of this post. I hope you weren't attached to your body, Midoriya, because you're about to lose it.

To cut a long story short, Midoriya got grabbed by some kind of glitch entity while logging out of the game (to avoid said entity) and found himself back in his room but, uh, not quite physical anymore. Cyber Sleuth refers to this as a half-cyber body*. I'm taking a few liberties with it though.

Midoriya would actually kind of like his body back though, it's his and he is attached to it. But he's not going to be able to get it back without diving deep into My Hero Online and learning more about what's below its surface.

+1. Midoriya is locked into his first character as a result of the glitched logout that took his body. It also gave him the Quirk, Glitch, which doesn't appear to be a real Quirk that you can create through the character creation system, and seems to border on warping reality within the game. And it might be getting stronger.

*For those of you who've never seen it, the half-cyber body is a blue silhouette of the person covered in a shifting pattern of squares resembling the particle effect used for digital stuff. However, by adjusting some data, this body can be customized to appear normal.

[sergeifyodorov]

How does world juniors work and where would one watch?

This is my first season watching the nhl and I’m from nz so I suspect we wont be represented lol but I’m keen to learn more and watch some! Any recommendations on what ones to watch?

omg anon WELCOME and also ... a brief WORLD JUNIORS PRIMER for you all...

Puppy Bowl!

If you're from NZ I'm not sure you know about the Puppy Bowl -- a show run concurrent to the Super Bowl, but all the participants are puppies? It means absolutely nothing but it is adorable. The World Juniors are basically that, but also it is exactly as important as the Olympics what are you talking about. Their official name is the "IIHF U-20 World Championship," which is a pretty self-explanatory name -- it's a tournament for players 20 and under (I believe they have to be at least sixteen, but because young athletes mature physically a LOT in those four years, the vast majority are eighteen-nineteen-twenty). Tradition dictates it starts on Boxing Day, and it runs for about three weeks -- it starts with a round-robin, followed by a single-elimination tournament, a bronze-medal match, and a relegation match.

Players are selected by their national hockey administration -- for Canada, it's Hockey Canada, but all countries within the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) have their own. The intricacies of ~Sports Bureaucracy~ are really long and only a LITTLE relevant, but every country ices the best roster they can, which means players are often "loaned" from CHL teams, NCAA universities, European league teams, or, occasionally, the NHL. (Note: You can usually tell how good a World Junior team is by how many players have been drafted/signed by NHL teams: the Canadians, Swedes, and Americans are almost always entirely draftees or under-18s, while the other teams in the upper division might only have a handful, or even only one, drafted player.)(Second note: The quality of a team has less correlation than you might think to them winning a single-elimination tournament.)

Like I said earlier, it starts with a round-robin: there are ten teams in the main WJ (we'll get to this in a second), divided into two groups of five, who each play each other once. The worst-performing team of each group is sent to the relegation match post-tournament, and the eight other teams do a single-elimination match until one team wins gold.

Teams and Divisions

This year, the top ten teams are: Canada, the US, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Norway, Czechia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Latvia. Because of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia is banned from participating in IIHF tournaments, but when it's not it's always in the top ten (likely instead of Norway, Switzerland, or Latvia.) UNLIKE the NHL, the IIHF has multiple "divisions" of teams, and at the end of the tournament the bottom two teams play a match to avoid relegation from the official ~IIHF World U20 Championship~ to Division I, which is right under it. There is also a Division II and a Division III -- and after some sleuthing, there IS a New Zealand team in Div III!!!!!

Canada and Broadcasting

Unfortunately, the WJC is basically only popular in Canada -- essentially a Boxing Day tradition to watch the babies play and cheer for our teams' prospects, or, usually, just Team Canada. In fact, Hockey Canada has bid to host it basically every other year until 2030. Because of this (or maybe a bit of a chicken-egg situation), the WJC is... kind of hard to find online if you're outside of Canada? I know for a fact it's broadcast on TSN (one of our sports networks) without any regional blackouts, but I don't think there's anything available in NZ that will be streaming it, especially because it's not one of the IIHF top ten countries. If you're not already doing so, you'll probably have to sail the high seas for your fix. (If you don't know where to do this, you can slide into my DMs and I can send you a link!)

Who to watch?

There's basically two routes for this: one, pick the team you think is going to win, or two, go look up what prospects your NHL team has that are playing at the WJC and watch them (Note: neither the Avs nor the Oilers have any WJC prospects this year!) The IIHF website has the game schedule listed, including time-zone adjusted start times -- they're all staggered, so if you have a lot of free time you might be able to watch more than one!

Personally, as both a Canadian and a Leafs fan -- both WJC-chosen Leafs prospects are Team Canada players, including their captain Fraser Minten -- I would recommend Team Canada (unashamed homer bias here.) They're usually one of the favourites to win, and they're almost entirely either drafted or not yet eligible, so you can see either your prospects or you can look at Celebrini and hope (if your team is bad) that he's coming to you one day. The Americans are generally considered Thee tournament favourites, if you prefer your teams highly touted.

To me, the WJC has twofold appeal: one, junior hockey is, for lack of a better term, messier than high-level hockey? Pucks are more likely to bounce in silly ways, rushes can get crazy, and you can get both a super high amount of shots and a super high amount of goals. Hormonal teenagers playing super high-stakes hockey for the first times in their lives and they can get really, really into it! The passion a kid has scoring a medal-winning goal in front of a sold-out crowd is absolutely unrivalled by all but the Cup Finals. (OMGGGGG THIS IS YOUR FIRST HOCKEY SEASON TOO... ok don't let me start talking about nhl playoffs because THIS is the puppy bowl that is the super bowl. but worse! i mean better but it's worse (for your cardiovascular health.))

Two, that these guys are still so young, and that at least a few of them have long, illustrious, potentially-Hall-of-Fame NHL careers ahead of them. For a lot of young stars, the World Juniors is an important part of their Lore. Watching someone become something as an adult after you've seen him as a junior is... magical? World Junior hockey is diamond-in-the-rough hockey. There's no polish, but it's the rawness of the million-dollar stone that sells it.

[yuwumeniji]

Luxiem as Dating Sim Characters

I... I like you!

WARNING: Please remember that I am writing about Luxiem based on their characters online and not of the people behind their vtuber avatars, thank you!

A/N: Yes.... MERGE ALL OF YOUR INTERESTS TOGETHER (my thought process when creating this side blog lol). There are some references to otome games I've played, I wonder if you can find them all ;;

BTW... requests are open, feel free to brainrot with me too ^^

READ MORE UNDER THE CUT!

GENERAL NOTES

All livers will be parts of different games (vaguely putting that way that is lmao)

I will be making references to games that I've played personally!

IKE EVELAND

The sweet boy-next-door from a Slice Of Life otome game!

Childhood bestie??? OFC????

I can picture him being one of the love interests in a school-based otome game with him being either a senpai or someone of the same age

The type of route to be underrated, but have a dedicated portion of the fanbase

He's got lots of cute CG where you and him are studying together,, having cute after-school dates,, etc.

He also has a little bit of a mean streak... very well known to be very hot/cold with the MC, and can be quite the tease especially during the lovers portion of the route, but the gap moe.... oh my god

His route is like... pure fluff and maybe sometimes that is all we need

His routes consist of a Lover's ending & Friendship ending. Because of the light-heartedness of the game he is from, there are no bad endings (unless you consider being friendzone'd a bad ending lmao)

"Y/N, you silly goose! Well... if you give me a kiss, I could show you how to solve that equation!"

LUCA KANESHIRO

The flirty playboy who actually has a heart of gold! Most likely from an action-drama otome game

Additionally,, he keeps his mafia boss title and you? his one and only journalist!

He meets you while you were on the hunt for some details about the Kaneshiro family for an article and decided to play the role of an unsuspecting passerby who has interest in the family as well!

During his route, he reveals that he intentionally joined us on our sleuthing adventure in order to stamp out the corruption that ran within the Kaneshiro mafia family. He wants the family to have as clean of a name as a mafia family could get - I mean, he eventually reveals himself as the heir!

A route full of action! adventure! crime committing! and to no one's shock - kinda steamy!

There is literally no inbetween for this man and he gives every player whiplash - from his innocent flirting with the MC that makes you giggle and swing your feet to him introducing to the MC what an "adult kiss" is (flushge!!)

A noire-esque type route where you and Luca play cat and mouse - you want to catch Luca for an article, Luca somehow evades you even when he was just arms reach away.

I want one CG where you're patching his wounds up and he's playfully teasing you like

"LUCA !!! YOU LITERALLY ALMOST DIED!!!"

"And? Did you see the look on that officer's fac- ARGH?! Be careful with that one!"

His route ends with a Lover's ending & Bad ending. His bad ending ends with either him dying after getting caught within some internal strife with the family OR he gets captured while trying to evade law enforcement (and you were the one who betrays him)

His lover's ending ends with you being the Bonnie to his Clyde, you eventually join him as his right hand man! (or woman?)

MYSTA RIAS

The prince who just wanted to have fun, fell in love with a commoner. Probably from a historical title with no basis in actual history/vaguely has a place in history.

Surprisingly bittersweet and well written - most fans who see him in the common route would think his route would be the most light-hearted out of the bunch, but the forbidden romance between a commoner and a prince is kinda... you know ;;

I still would like to think he has a relatively light-hearted route despite the bittersweet elements to it lmao

He's literally just some silly guy free him from the palace

He actually spends a lot of the route guarded against the MC despite his displays of affection due to his disposition as someone with higher power than you.

A lot of tear-jerking scenes and a lot of close calls with getting caught before his coronation day.

His confession scene was the most memorable visually. The moon shining on his face as you two sat beside each other in the royal garden after splashing around in the fountains. Instead of the jovial expression he normally has on, his face was stern and serious as he declares his love for the MC

Also full of the cheesiest otome lines known to man

"Even if the world is against you and I, then so be it. I would choose you no matter what."

"As the heir to the next throne, I can promise you the entire world if I have to."

The whiplash between his silly antics and the way he confesses his love to the MC is what made the game's fans go crazy

His route ends with the most bad endings - One where you get thrown in the dungeon, one where you could be executed as someone who usurped the king, one where he breaks off his engagement with you, etc. Just know it's bad all round LMAO

His lover's ending ends with you marrying him and him succeeding the throne. It's a very cheesy end, but according to players, one of the best endings in the entire game.

SHU YAMINO

A dramatic and mystical being from a fantasy/slice of life otome game! I specifically need him to be a character that jokes about being the world's "final boss" while being a cafe regular at the place you work at.

It's got quite the modern feel in contrast to the vintage cafe setting

The game begins as normal, with a few incidents that eventually reveal the true nature the very magical nature of the regulars you usually serve, with Shu being considered the game's "final, true ending"

The kind to order sweet menu items because you suggested it and he actually would rather rave more savoury items.

His route consists of everyday chats; to many that find him in the common routes, shu seems to be the most normal route in comparison to the wacky mythical beings in the game, but dear lord are we in for an angsty rollercoaster

"Y/N?? What are you doing here in this *very obviously* dangerous place!!"

"I came here to get- wait,you're the one from the cafe?!"

He has broken the 4th wall at least once in his route and he doesn't have a lot of fanservice scenes outside of that (the fandom is coping so hard. me, im the fandom)

His route ultimately has 2 endings - True Ending & Lover's Ending

OFC HIS ROMANTIC ENDING IS ONE OF THE HARDEST TO ACHIEVE LMFAO - only occurs if you max out the entire game: collecting all endings for all characters AND if you can max out his romance meter within a certain time frame

The true ending is well.... the truest ending of the game (since I'm trying to vaguely write about whatever this game is, I won't give a proper like... fleshed out ending lmao)

obvs the true ending doesn't sit well with fans and they only accept the Lover's end as the true ending of his route lmao (copium)

VOX AKUMA

An assassin or an army general from a japanese-historical otome game!

He's on a quest to defeat a corrupted shogunate and he stumbled across you while finding a village to retreat to. More specifically, a hidden ninja village in the remote mountains south of the capital (or something like that, i'm not very big on geography or history, but like, picture it lmao)

You were the one to find him bleeding on the ground and, to no surprise, the one who nursed him back to health.

Despite his quest to defeat the leader, he took a liking to you and spends his entire route trying to convince you to join his journey.

You can join him or not join him - but not joining him leads you right into an immediate game over lol

"Do you want to train today? Or perhaps, shall we talk a walk around the village?"

THE BIGGEST MOST FLIRTIEST OTOME GAME CHARACTER EVER . severe whiplash to fans who expected this game to be serious and less of an otome , more of a joseimuke title

He has a number of bad endings - one where he couldn't take you with him, one that ends with him getting assassinated and one that ends with him failing his mission.

Luckily for you - he has one of the most romantic Lover's ending that eventually ends with an epilogue where you both settle down in the hidden ninja village again, living peacefully despite being outlaws LOL